Is it me, my saw or my blades?

[graduate_owner]

Hi all,
I bought an Axminster scroll saw a few years ago. I am mainly into turning so I didn't want to spend out on a hefty one, it was about £55, but I think these are about £80 now. I bought it for toy making, for the grandchildren.
Well ever since it arrived I have struggled with it. It just won't follow a line. I turn the wood (slowly) but the blade always just seems to twist and goes on cutting it's own merry way. It's not as if I am cutting anything thick or tough - just 6mm ply gives problems.
I have tensioned the blade, made no difference. I tensioned it and the motor struggled to start (?) So I eased it off a bit.
Now I have heard of people doing decent work with these, so where am I going wrong? I'm guessing it might be the blades, which are pinned end type.
Any suggestions?

 

[sunnybob]

dont fight it. Scroll saws almost never cut straight. Draw the line, and move the wood around to keep the blade on the line.

 

[lanemaux]

Also , the pinned type of blade are often wider (from tooth tip to rear) and thicker (side to side ) than the more delicately dimensioned pinless type . The ones I get from Canadian Tire , the McDonalds of hardware stores in Canada , are far too robustly dimensioned to allow rotation inside a kerfs width (about an eighth of an inch front to rear). In my defence , it ain't cause I'm cheap that I buy them , pinned blades are scarce in our hardware stores (good pinless as well) so unless I mail order they're what I've got. I find that if I need a sharp inside point to a cut I need to cut from 2 sides to the point.

 

[AES]

There's loads of advice over on the Scroll saw section, including links to various blade selection type charts.

But sorry, it's just not true that "scroll saws almost never cut straight - it's more the fact that, with all due respect, a lot of scroll saw "drivers" haven't learnt to cut straight!! You have to "aim off to 1 side".

To explain that a little more, almost all (all?) scroll saw blades have a tendency to cut all little off from what by eye would be a parallel (to the saw axis) straight line. That's why a fence wouldn't work on a scroll saw, and none are fitted with them. The amount of offset depends on the type and thickness of the blade - as someone said already, the pinned type blades are wider (front to back) than the pinless type, but although less conveniet for tight curves, I can assure you that with enough practice (it does take a while) pinned blades will cut just as straight as pinless - and in just about ANY machine (though better machines do make that job a LOT easier than the cheapos like I used for a long time until I got an Excali ). AND do so in just about any wood (and a lot of other materials too). The type and thickness of the wood the OP is specifying should definitely NOT be a problem.

As said above, it's "simply" a matter of practice to learn to make your particular combination of blade and machine cut straight lines. There are a lot of web sites to get you familiar with the basics of cutting straight (and curved) lines, but I suggest you Google "Mike's Workshop" (sorry, link not handy) where there are a lot of very good scrolling tutorials.

All this assumes that the blade is correctly tensioned (you hear a "ping" when the blade is "plucked") and if variable speed, that the rpm is set so that you feel comfortable and not that everything's running so fast that the cut has "run away" with you.

HTH (if I can learn to do it, absolutely anyone can - honest)!

Edit for P.S. So the answer to your original Q grad.-onr; is: "It's 99% likely to be you that's causing the problem". Sorry

 

[sunnybob]

"But sorry, it's just not true that "scroll saws almost never cut straight - it's more the fact that, with all due respect, a lot of scroll saw "drivers" haven't learnt to cut straight!! You have to "aim off to 1 side"".

Now thats what I call semantics :shock: =D>

 

[Gerry]

I use a scroll saw for cutting out plywood parts for model aeroplanes. You can cut a perfectly straight line if you score the wood with a knife first. The blade will try to
follow the knife cut. I have done this in 1/32" to 1/2" ply.

Gerry

 

[AES]

Also true, and a good tip Gerry.

With respect sunnybob, not just semantics! When I first got interested in scrolling (rather than just using a scroll saw as a tool for cutting out parts for model aircraft & such) I did a lot of reading and apparently a lot of scroll newbies sent their new machines back because they wouldn't cut straight. They don't actually (cut straight), and you have to learn to "fiddle-cut" them (as I described) - in that respect using a scroll saw to cut straight lines is quite unlike using any other saw.

Edit for a P.S. For graduate owner: here's the link I was searching for last night (Steve Good):

http://www.stevedgood.com/school/sss.html

The exercises in there will help you a lot, especially with straight lines (and lots of other things).

HTH

 

[kstano83]

I had the same problem and was putting the blame on the saw, or blade. I just was not able to follow the line no matter what. Probably because I have watched too many fast scroll sawers on youtube before I have bought mine and thought it will be that easy without learning. The first think I have cut was just an unrecognizable garbage. I got mad and complained about it on a forum and got a reply from AES similar to what he wrote above. Then I used an easy pattern and tried to follow the line as slow as possible and I was surprised with the results. My cuts are still far from perfect, and I still mess up sometimes. It just takes time to learn how to feed the wood into the blade, how and when to turn. Just take it slow and have FUN. Once you start giving toys to your grandchildren, their reactions will drive you to make more and more. It´s a great and rewarding feeling.